When Hurricane Rita hit 5 years ago, Michael and I were still in galaxies far, far away from each other. I had evacuated to northern Arkansas with my family and then made it all the way back down to South Padre Island, Texas for Jenny and Chris's wedding. What a week that was!!!! Michael and his family had evacuated to Lufkin....cause Lufkin is safe from hurricanes. WRONG! Power was out and trees were down everywhere! After a couple days, it was discovered that Amy and Dennis had power in Mont Belvieu. So a lot of Michael's family headed to the Wagner's where they hung out, ate and enjoyed being cool again. Amy wanted to get everyone together and have a Rita Reunion! I was not at the first event but I made it to the reunion :) Friday evening was spent at Kemah. It is so nice there! I love it every time I go. Laura, one of Ryan's "big" cousins, had talked all week about how she was gonna ride in the back of the truck with Ryan...in her car seat right beside his. 
And that is what she did! She was so funny...and good. We parked in the parking garage and Amy and Dennis had parked on the other side of the parking lot. With out being told, Laura held onto the side of Ryan's stroller all the way across Kemah until we got to the restaurant. It was really cute. Then when we put Ryan in his high chair, Laura wanted to sit in one right beside him. 
Her legs are a LITTLE long for it but it still worked. She cracks me up!We got to take Ryan on his first train ride! He liked it :)
He was looking around the whole time. There is a lot to see there! The 3 of us slept in Amy and Dennis's travel trailer. On Saturday, we all went to their school Fall Festival and then just hung out at their house. It was good to be with family and it not be a holiday or birthday...just time to visit and hang out. Glad Amy had this idea! 
Oh, and apparently, Ryan is not as scared of dogs anymore, as this picture shows! He took a little while to warm up to Chelsea but he gradually got ok with her. He would still scream when he saw her or she came near him but he screamed with a smile on his face and he did not want her to get out of his site!
Ryan is a CRAWLER! FINALLY!Officially, it was last week. He was 11 months and 3 days old. Last week he was still moving both hands up at the same time and then moving his legs a few times...and then flipping over and rolling to where he wanted to go. He was amazingly accurate in his rolling...knew just how to position his body to get there!He has steadily gotten better and crawled more each day. The last couple days he is really gotten the crawl motion down good...the one leg/arm and a time and is going for longer distances now. During the last week, he has found the tupperware cabinet, pantry, bathroom cabinets and is pulling up on things to his knees. I am so thankful that he has figured all of this out! I was really hoping that he would crawl before his birthday :) Only a few weeks to spare!
Today, 10.10.10, is Ryan's 11 month birthday! He is almost 1 year old! Wow! We weighed him and he still hasn't gained any weight this month. The doctor said last month that he was still in the 75 percentile so he was fine. Just seems weird when he doesn't gain any weight. I am used to him gaining every time. I know he is very active now so that makes a difference too. 
10.10.10
Saturday morning, we woke up and went to the Lumberton homecoming parade. Ryan got a lot of candy! But since he doesn't eat candy yet, the majority of it will end up in the trick or treat candy this year :) 
Saturday afternoon Amy, Joe, Laura and Peter came in and we went to the Lamar homecoming football game with them and Jenny and Chris. The first homecoming football game in 21 years! It was the coolest thing! Lamar got football back this season after losing their program 21 years ago. When Michael and I went to college, there was little to no school spirit. Yesterday, there were hundreds if not thousands of people out there tailgating and having a great time! The game was good...we won 14-0! The band was great and the energy in the crowd was fun! When we were walking back to the car (along a few thousand other people) people were chanting "L-U, L-U!" What in the world?! What school were we at?! Seemed like a different world! We loved it! The Warings spent the night with us and we had a good visit this morning. We had a nice, relaxing day at home today...needed it after this weekend.
Here are a few more pictures of Ryan:He really likes to be read to! That makes me very happy! We have his books on the bottom shelf and he likes to look at them by himself sometimes. Sometimes when he gets quiet in the living room, I will peak around the corner to check on him and he will be studying a book :) 
Ryan gets pretty messy with his food! He likes to get his hands in the way of his mouth and spread it all over. Nice. 
I was eating an apple the other day and Ryan was very interested in it. So I let him suck on what was left. 
This was his reaction! Funny. I wasn't being mean to him! After this picture, he kept coming back for more and seemed to really like it! 
This is a sneak peak of his halloween costume :)
The day to day with Ryan is so special...sometimes we just look at each other and can't believe he is ours. I think we will still say that when he graduates from high school. There are so many little things he does that I want to remember...and I am scared I will forget. Like:sometimes when we are rocking him to sleep, he kind of "sings" himself to sleep. AAAAHHHHH....yaaaaaaa....ddadadadada.....aaaaaaaaa....and then it will eventually fade off to sleep.
when he gets so excited that he just closes his eyes and squeals :)
when I peak around the corner at him playing in the living room and he sees me and just gives me one of the bi ol' grins that will melt your heart.
he LOVES opening and closing the refrigerator door. oh, and he loves the little turkey hanging from the ceiling in the garage.
he is a CUDDLER! Michael asked me before he was born what I was gonna do if we got a baby that didn't like to be held and cuddled a lot. no worries. that is not the baby that we got :) (do they make them like that??!)
when I get him up in the morning to change his diaper and get dressed, he will sometimes fuss a little. it is VERY hard to get up! i usually pick him up and walk over to the mirror so that I can look at him a little bit. he is asleep on my shoulder and i could just look at him all day. after I change his diaper, i bring him over to our bed to dress him. i love when he wakes up a little while i am dressing him and cracks his eyes open and gives me a little, sweet, sleepy smile :)
he says "dadada" ALL the time! i love it when he whispers it "dadada"....like he is just dreaming of dada :)
right now, when he has fallen asleep taking a bottle, when he is done with it, he throw himself over on his side...loves to sleep on his side now.
There are many more, that I will hopefully remember to add later. These are just off the top of my head tonight. We are very blessed!
Poor sweet boy had pink eye in both eyes a couple weeks ago. This shot is of his sweet, swollen eyes. Still smiling though :)The next day, he didn't feel like smiling much. He felt pretty crummy. We stayed home and had a love on Ryan day...which is pretty much every day!
Ok...so Ryan is almost 11 months old and he still is not crawling! He rolls or scoots every where that he wants to go so I guess he figures "what's the big deal about crawling??" He is really getting fast! We have to watch him really close now. Here are a few things he likes to do lately:Play with daddy's chair
Open and close the door
Dump all his toys out of the box 
There are a few more things like play with the plant and almost dump the dirt on the floor, roll BEHIND daddy's chair, get in the bathroom, find any shoes laying on the floor of the living room and try to put them in his mouth, etc. Good times :)Ryan has been doing better with sleeping in his bed lately! Yes, we are the BAD parents who let our baby sleep in the bed with us :) It started out as desperation for a little bit of sleep when he was a baby. He NEVER liked his bed. This was our routine for the first few nights we were home with him: nurse Ryan, Ryan fall asleep, put Ryan in his bed, lay down and pray for at least a couple hours of sleep, 20 min later Ryan awake and crying, get Ryan up, nurse Ryan, change Ryan's poopy diaper, spend 1 hour trying to get him back to sleep. Repeat. I could not survive. So that lead to Ryan sleeping on my chest which was his favorite place in the world :) And I admit it....I liked the cuddle time :) I would prop up my arms with pillows so Ryan was secure and safe or I wouldn't have done it. We decided this is what works for us and went with it. (We would try to put him in his bed regularly to see if he had decided to like it!) No luck.As he has gotten bigger the last few months, he has liked to sleep in the crook of my arm. But lately he has been trying to sleep on his side or stomach and I wouldn't let him cause there are pillows in our bed. So we put him in his bed and he immediately turned over on his side....and ever since, he usually sleeps a large portion of the night in his own bed! Thank God! That is really an answered prayer. I was a little worried how it would ever work out. I loved that all night cuddle time but he is getting a little big to hold all night :) 
And that is what she did! She was so funny...and good. We parked in the parking garage and Amy and Dennis had parked on the other side of the parking lot. With out being told, Laura held onto the side of Ryan's stroller all the way across Kemah until we got to the restaurant. It was really cute. Then when we put Ryan in his high chair, Laura wanted to sit in one right beside him. 
Her legs are a LITTLE long for it but it still worked. She cracks me up!
He was looking around the whole time. There is a lot to see there! The 3 of us slept in Amy and Dennis's travel trailer. On Saturday, we all went to their school Fall Festival and then just hung out at their house. It was good to be with family and it not be a holiday or birthday...just time to visit and hang out. Glad Amy had this idea! 
Oh, and apparently, Ryan is not as scared of dogs anymore, as this picture shows! He took a little while to warm up to Chelsea but he gradually got ok with her. He would still scream when he saw her or she came near him but he screamed with a smile on his face and he did not want her to get out of his site!
